Re:Ocean is seeking SEK 2.3 billion (USD 226 million, EUR 216.4 million) to develop a 10,000-metric-ton (MT) vertically integrated land-based Atlantic salmon farm in Säffle, Sweden.
Formerly known as Premium Svensk Lax, the company and project was recently rebranded. First proposed in 2020, the project calls for the construction of a 58,800-square-meter inland salmon farm housing 88 tanks of varying sizes up to 25 meters in diameter, where salmon will be raised from egg to harvest. Construction firm Ramboll completed groundwork on the farm in February 2022.
“This is the first large-scale investment in salmon farming in Sweden, and it is reshaping food production,” Katarina Klingspor, Chairman of Re:Ocean said in a release.
Re:Ocean CEO Morten Malle said the project is supported by Sweden’s three leading grocery retailers, Axfood, Coop, and ICA, which he said are keen to offer consumers sustainable salmon from Sweden, as 99.9 percent of the salmon currently eaten in the country is imported – mainly from its neighbor Norway.
Swedes only eat around 12 kilos of fish per person per year, which is well below the global average of 19.8 kilograms. Malle’s ambition is for the new farm to provide 20 percent of Sweden’s total salmon consumption by 2026, when it is expected to be in full production.
The fish will be raised in water purified and reused in a closed cycle, using a design that uses 10 times less water than conventional recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), according to Ramboll. The farm’s waste products will be turned into biogas as part of a zero-waste policy, and the facility will be 100 percent powered by fossil-fuel-free energy sources.
Re:Ocean aims to introduce its first smolt into the water in 2023, with its first salmon product available in stores in 2025.
“By putting the entire process from hatch to processing and packaging in the same place, we secure access to fresh salmon in Sweden and fundamentally change the way we produce fish. Our ambition is to create the most-sustainable salmon available in terms of human health and the environment. We want to let the oceans rest, so we’re building our own ocean,” Malle said.
Axfood CEO Klas Balkow said his company has gotten involved with the project because it believes contributing to sustainable and circular food production in Sweden is a strategically beneficial move for it to make. ICE Sweden CEO Anders Svensson said his company’s investment represents “a step in the right direction for strengthened Swedish self-sufficiency.”
“This is a very important initiative to strengthen sustainable fish farming and to offer our customers a larger selection of affordable, good, and sustainable fish in our stores in future,” he said.
Photo courtesy of Re:Ocean
